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A few athletes with local ties have joined President Obama and entered their brackets into ESPN's Tournament Challenge -- including Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo, whose two years at Kentucky apparently didn't fill him with enough venom to keep him from picking Louisville (his hometown school) to cut down the nets come early April.

Rondo likes the favorites. His Elite Eight includes No. 3 MSU and No. 4 Syracuse, while the rest are 1 and 2 seeds. His Final Four is three 2 seeds and top-ranked Louisville. Interesting to note, too, is that he thinks Tubby Smith -- the coach he supposedly clashed with at Kentucky -- pulls his biggest first-round upset.

The Celtic guard is a native of Detroit, which probably explains his pick of the Wolverines -- and two Michigan teams getting to Atlanta. His picks also seemed to be influenced by the year he played at Indiana, and big-time respect for the Big 10, which comprises five of his final eight and three quarters of his Final Four.

Not a very daring bracket from the former Patriots tight end, who predicts that 28 of the 32 first-round games will go to the better-seeded team. His boldest pick comes in the second round, where he says No. 8 NC State will take out No. 1 Indiana in the East, then follow that up by knocking off No. 4 Syracuse. He then sees the Wolfpack losing to Miami, however, setting up a Final Four with two 1s and two 2s.

The President expects that Wisconsin (as the West's No. 5 seed) will be the only team seeded beyond fourth to even reach the Sweet 16. Here we were thinking he was a liberal. By and large, his bracket is quite conservative.

You can see that the former Wildcat had an inclination to go with his alma mater in the Sweet 16 -- actually writing "Arizona" before crossing it out -- but ultimately picked Ohio State to beat Arizona. He thinks the Buckeyes are good enough to play in Atlanta, and sometimes head overrules heart.

Sometimes heart overrules head, too, as is evident by Western Kentucky's own Lee picking his school to knock off No. 1 Kansas -- and then No. 8 North Carolina, before falling to Michigan. Gotta respect that, as well as stepping outside the box to pick fifth-seeded Wisconsin to win it all.

Wilcox sees the biggest upset the same way Terry does, and three of their Final Four are the same, as well. Don't forget, those two have street cred in this thing: They've both been on teams that have won this tournament (Terry at Arizona in 1997, Wilcox at Maryland in 2002).

The former Indiana big man sticks to his roots and takes the Hoosiers to hoist the hardware. White ends up with seven of the same Elite Eight teams as Wilcox, but gets there via a slightly different route, forecasting a number of upsets among the middle seeds, most notably No. 11 Bucknell over No. 6 Butler, which leads into Bucknell then beating Marquette.

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